Christopher Delgado poured money into politics before Ponzi scheme arrest

Before Christopher Delgado was arrested on accusations he was running a $328 million Ponzi scheme, he was a major Republican donor and poured $111,500 into his own failed Orange County Commission race in 2022.

Delgado, the CEO of Orlando cryptocurrency firm Goliath Ventures, was arrested this week on money laundering and wire fraud charges.

He donated $25,000 to the Republican Party of Florida in 2024.

Federal campaign finance records show Delgado also contributed $23,500 to the National Republican Congressional Committee in 2025 and $11,500 to President Donald Trump’s fundraising committee during the 2024 cycle.

Delgado also gave $4,300 to Never Surrender, a pro-Trump PAC, and $250 to both the House Speaker Mike Johnson’s campaign and the Republican National Committee.

Florida Politics reached out to those organizations for comment but did not get an immediate response Friday afternoon. Delgado’s attorneys also did not respond for comment.

Delgado was also a frequent donor to Florida political committees and state GOP candidates.

That included giving $25,000 to the now-defunct Justice PC in 2024. Delgado gave the same sum in 2025 to Conservative Solutions for Florida, which is Orange County GOP Chair Erin Huntley’s political committee as she runs for House District 45. Rep. Doug Bankson, a Republican from Apopka, also received $1,000 in 2022.

Both Bankson and Conservative Solutions for Florida already returned the money to Goliath, which is the legal process for handling the situation, said William Stafford Jones, who chairs the political committees for them.

“The bottom line is we don’t want the money if it’s connected to such a thing,” he told Florida Politics.

Delgado donated $20,000 to Life and Liberty over the years and also wrote $10,000 checks to both the Citizens for Common Sense Solutions in 2024 and Citizens for a Greater West Orange in 2023.

Florida Politics reached out to those politics committees for comment but did not immediately hear back Friday afternoon.

Delgado also self-funded his 2022 race for Orange County Commission, loaning his campaign $111,500. It wasn’t enough. He came in third, losing to Christine Moore.

He also gave money to a few other local candidates.

Christopher and Andie Delgado, who listed the same address in Apopka, both gave $1,000 to Austin Arthur on the same day in November 2023.

Arthur amassed an impressive war chest during his failed campaign to knock off Orange County Commissioner Nicole Wilson in 2024. He forced a runoff election against Wilson and lost.

Arthur also chairs the Citizens for Common Sense Solutions.

Arthur said he was outraged to learn of Delgado’s arrest and the Ponzi scheme allegations and that he would have returned the money during the campaign if he had known.

But unfortunately, the money is gone today, he said.

“He fooled a lot of good people,” Arthur said. “Somebody like that who, if the allegations are true, was just destroying people’s lives by this dishonest scheme that he was doing and he’s just right up my doorstep, literally handing me a check.”

Arthur added, “It is just really, really disheartening.”

In addition to political causes, Delgado was a significant donor to local nonprofit organizations and charities in Central Florida.

The Orlando Economic Partnership (OEP) quietly scrubbed references to Goliath Ventures as an investor after news broke of Delgado’s arrest. The organization has declined to say how much Delgado gave, but based on the investor level on OEP’s website, it appears to be at least $200,000.

Delgado is being accused of operating a Ponzi scheme and using some of the investors’ money to buy four homes.

The most expensive home he bought was an $8.5 million, five-bedroom house in a gated Windermere community. Living just a few doors down was someone else familiar with media scrutiny: former Rep. Carolina Amesty.

Amesty faced her own financial scandal over receiving COVID pandemic loans and forgery allegations, although criminal charges were later dropped.

Amesty did not respond to questions about whether she knew Delgado.

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Drew Wilson of Florida Politics contributed to this report.